Crypto Market Faces Declines While U.S. Index Futures Remain Stable
The cryptocurrency market faced broad losses on Monday, while U.S. stock index futures remained stable ahead of an important meeting between European leaders and U.S. President Donald Trump regarding Ukraine.
Market volatility decreased as investors anticipated Federal Reserve Chairman Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole symposium, expected to hint at potential rate cuts starting in September.
Key developments include:
- Major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether experienced price declines, while Chainlink's LINK token remained steady.
- Solana achieved a significant milestone in transaction speeds.
- Japan plans to approve its first yen-backed stablecoin by Q3, viewed as a transformative step.
Derivatives Positioning
- Bitcoin futures open interest rose to 720,000 BTC, the highest since August 2, despite price declines.
- Positive funding rates are diminishing, indicating growing bearish sentiment.
- Open interest for Ether increased to 14.34 million ETH, also the highest since August 2.
- Chainlink's open interest reached a record high of 68.13 million LINK, with annualized funding rates around 10%.
- Open interest in Solana futures hit over 4.6 million SOL, but the three-month premium declined sharply from 35% to 15%.
- CME bitcoin futures show low institutional participation with continued lower highs since December.
- Risk reversals indicate a preference for put options, reflecting demand for downside protection.
- A major short strangle strategy was executed, betting on a range-play between $4,040 and $5,020 for BTC options.
Token Talk
- On-chain liquidations for Solana surpassed those on centralized exchanges, with $37.4 million of SOL liquidated on-chain compared to $20.9 million on CEXs.
- Hyperliquid's open interest in SOL reached $1.2 billion, while Binance volumes fell.
- Stablecoin inflows on Solana exceeded $12 billion, with substantial migration from Ethereum.
- A Shiba Inu whale moved 3 trillion SHIB (~$38 million) into cold storage, coinciding with a significant increase in SHIB’s burn rate.
- Developers are preparing cross-chain expansions using Chainlink CCIP alongside a new dev hub and DEX to enhance liquidity.